Matthew 11: 28-30

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

“Keeping it simple!” That is what my pastor calls the Wednesday night Bible study, where he would break down the word of God into easily digestible morsels, for a daily practical application. He can unravel any complicated passage into understandable passage, which we could implement in our daily lives. The applicability of God’s Word is what makes the Word of God so simple that even a small child can understand.

Yes, God’s Word is simple for anyone to receive it and understand it. However, we have complicated it for our own detriment. In the Garden of Eden, God said not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Very simple to follow. Yet, Adam and Eve disobeyed, causing sin to corrupt the whole world. We have traded easy things with complex things thereby bringing complexity, confusion and contradiction into our lives. When God said marriage is between a man and a woman, we should have stuck to that formula instead of complicating with LGBTQI+. When God said to be fruitful and multiply, we chose to abort babies. When God said to not bow down to any idols, we chose to idolize everything else apart from God. When God said to obey the ten commandments, we chose to completely get rid of them leading to the break down of our society.

We sought to find divinity in God’s creation instead of God Himself. By rejecting the One, True God, we have entangled ourselves in a plethora of gods, unable to decipher which one and how to appease. If only we are willing to untangle ourselves from the web of lies that we have woven, then we could see the simplicity of God’s Word. The Pharisees during the time of Jesus have burdened themselves and the populace with a wide range of rules and regulations, which they themselves could not live by. They not only complicated the lives of the people but burdened them with these complicated laws. Jesus comes along and simplifies the truth. The followers of Jesus slowly but surely understood the simplicity of Jesus’ teachings. It was liberating to them.

The great thinkers and philosophers of the world tried to come up with ideologies to simplify our lives. Instead, their ideologies are complex and impractical. God’s Word is simple and practical. The philosophers came up with the ideas that may have been tenable for the times they were living. On the other hand, God’s Word is timeless and applicable for every generation. God’s Word is absolute truth. All other ideologies and/or philosophies are derived from God’s absolute truth, peppered with complexities.

Dear Saints, our God Almighty willed a simple and easy life for us. If our lives are filled with complexities, it is by our own doing. Jesus invites us to cast those burdens on Him, take up His yoke, which He promises is light and easy. Let us untangle ourselves from the complex web of lies that we have allowed the evil one to weave so that we could be free. Ring in the true freedom that only comes from believing in the Absolute Truth that comes from the Word of God. Let us live in obedience to that truth. As the wise teacher of Ecclesiastes concludes in chapter 12, “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is ‘fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person,’” let us strive to keep it simple. In simplicity, there is beauty. In simplicity, there is joy. In simplicity, there is peace. In simplicity, there is pure and holy love. If we strive after simplicity, then we are wise. We are better equipped to unravel ourselves from complexities. Life is but a vapor. Here today and gone tomorrow. Instead of complicating our lives, let us simplify them by simply obeying God’s Word: fearing God, honoring marriage, preserving the family, protecting the unborn, loving unconditionally, and forgiving easily.